I don't know who made the schedule, but whoever it was must be from the West Coast. Look at the ridiculous number of home games vs. road games so far for the Pacific Division teams. The good news is this stuff evens out over the course of the season, so that bodes well for the Rockets whose schedule has been road heavy up til now.
NBA games are very tough to schedule, because those arenas are all booked solid year round by all sorts of events. Some things are pretty static every year, though. The Knicks always have to take a road trip in mid February because of the dog show, and the San Antonio has their rodeo in February
The Bulls have the circus early in the season if i recall. But...everybody plays 41 at home, and 41 on the road...
Havn't we had this thread before I can't search but I know we have it... It's like some team spends 3-4 months to make. 41 home/road games. 4 games vs conference opponents. 2 games vs opposite conference opp. Consider team venue (ie. the circus comming to chicago). The time of road trip. Teams near each other etc... but it takes a long time to do, a computer does not do it because of these many factors.
I've thought about this before and everytime I do it makes my head hurt. Unless they rely heavily on some kind of computer organizer or something, it's like trying to work out a puzzle with nearly 2,500 pieces that all have to be perfectly complimentary.
why cant a computer do it? im sure you can place dates to where you cant book a game for that day/night.
while in the end the books show that you played just as many at home as on the road the way a schedule is made is huge. for example take the lakers. they played 15 of the first 20 (16 since one was a "road" game against the clippers) what does this do? they have a young team who are learning the system still. being at home so much at the beginning of the season allows them to build up early chemistry without so much hostility around them. It easier to make mistakes without consequence at home than on the road where the crowd plays a huge factor. They've been playing really well since then because of this and now they are going on the first real road trip of the season. once a good form of chemistry has been established its not something the breaks. hence you have a team that is maximizing its talent. now lets say the lakers played a bit more games on the road than at home this year, i would say that they would be a bit more susceptible to lose games that they should win. it happens every year, generally i see it from the league giving teams they want to succeed schedules that are favorable structured. its a bit annoying but it has to be like that to be good for the national tv and all. i dont think the rockets got "hosed" for their schedule, i just think the injury to mcgrady happened at a really bad time. we could have/should have won the 3 games we lost if he was in the lineup. but not much we can do now.
If I were on an NBA team, I would much rather have a home heavy schedule late in the season when playoff seedings are being determined. That young team that the Lakers have that built up that chemistry might choke away a few late season road games. We'll see...
I hear this "theory" a lot on this board, but one thing I can't understand is why the NBA would not want the Houston Rockets to succeed. I know LA, NY, and Chicago are the huge markets for the NBA, but Yao has 2 billion fans. Considering the fact that many "experts" claim the NBA has fallen behind the NFL and MLB among American fans, whats the point of trying to help those markets over 2 billion fans who will be watching Yao regardless of the opponent?
One thing I also noticed was that once we go on a road trip, we stay in that area. Like right now, we are in the West. We aren't going to travel all the way to NY to play a game and go back to Cali. Same thing with the Texas Triangle. Most teams in the East, when they come to Texas, play all 3 of us before they head back out. I am pretty sure this is a tough constraint to work with considering all the other teams have to be at home too. I'm pretty sure Stern and Jackson sit down and come up with something. But I'm not sure. I am definitely curious though because it just seems so complicated to manage everything properly! And don't forget all the National televised games. They have to work with TNT, ESPN, ABC, and NBATV to come up with something. Lakers always find a way to play on Thursday or Friday. You can't just put up a schedule and let those guys pick whatever game they want to air. I dont think it works that way. I can't even find anything on this on google.
This is correct, but in most arenas the NBA team has first right to a date so concerts and other shows cannot be booked on any possible game day until the arena is given clearance by the NBA to use that date. Also, you are correct that some things stay pretty static with annual events because the arena will request those dates from the NBA prior to the NBA schedule being created for the upcoming year. Most venues will schedule the yearly events during all star break because they know their team will not have any home games that week.
And yet, with TWO teams playing NBA schedules in the same arena, and all of the scheduling conflicts that ought to arise from that, the Lakers manage to have the FEWEST back to back games in the league. Want to know who has the most? Try being a contender in the Laker's division - then the schedule makers REALLY make it tough.
